This blog isn't' for flaming. It's solely for me to get a little information on the possible merge from any of you guys who actually know what this is all about. Because I sure as hell don't, or I wouldn't be posting this.

I've been a happy T-Mobile user for many years now. In my experience they have good prices, good plans, good coverage, and very few dropped calls. I've had next to no complaints with these guys, the only ones being that I have a hard time sending texts on occasion, and that they did accidentally screw something up with my bill, where they didn't take off international texting as I asked.

Aside from that, they've been very reliable, and have worked for everything I've ever really needed. Customer service is great, as another point.

Then I hear AT&T plans to buy out all of T-Mobile, thereby gaining their towers and forcing all T-Mobile users to switch and/or get new phones.

Being assimilated is enough of a bummer. I mean I have to get a new phone when I was plenty happy with the one I currently have. And even if they do a free/discount phone, it'll be subpar. SIM cards also need to be swapped, which means there's the cumbersome process of transferring contacts, images, ringtones, and everything else I want to keep.

However, I've heard there are many downsides to AT&T. I've heard that they have poor service, both in networking and customer support. Networking will probably be fixed once they acquire T-Mobile's towers, but I'm not sure they can live up to the support T-Mobile's offered. On top of that, and especially after spending as much money as they plan to, payment plans are going to rise pretty damn high. I already pay $60 a month and with my other bills, I can't afford much more than that. Also, I haven't heard of them having any good family plans, the 5 Faves, the free minutes on weekends, after 9 PM, and to other users of the same network. And finally, I've come to understand that T-Mobile offers very cheap prices on most of their features anyway, including texting and such.

So enlighten me. Does anyone know when this goes into effect, details like how much the prices will rise, what they're doing to compensate us for the inconvenience, or if I should switch off to Verizon or Sprint altogether?

Your opinions are valued, but only if they're respectful toward other opinions. I understand this is a little touchy, though not to the extent of consoles, but I don't want to hear extremely biased, one-sided opinions. I just want to get a little information from people who have a good idea of what they're talking about.